The January 17th Democratic Debate Will Be Live Streamed On YouTube

As election season begins to hit its stride, YouTube is taking advantage of its quadrennial opportunity to serve as a public forum. On January 17th, the video site will host a live stream of that night’s Democratic primary debate, which will take place in Charleston, South Carolina.

NBC will broadcast the debate on TV, and the online stream will be available on the NBC News YouTube channel. While several other broadcasters have offered up live streams of 2016 primary debates, NBC’s will be the first network to go live on YouTube this election season.

By hosting debate coverage, YouTube is echoing its strategy from four years ago, when it streamed the policy battles between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. During the last presidential election, YouTube also boasted in-depth analysis from eight different channels. That package doesn’t seem to be an explicit part of YouTube’s coverage of the upcoming Democratic debate, but you can bet that the site’s top political channels will have plenty to say about Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The Young Turks

, for example, has gotten a lot of mileage out of the craziness of the Republican debates.

YouTube’s debate duties will go beyond merely hosting NBC’s stream. “With so many YouTube fans following this election closely, of course there will be an opportunity for you to get involved,” reads a blog post from YouTube. “Along with Google Trends data, the debate will feature questions from the YouTube community. Look out for more information on how you can engage in the coming weeks.”